by Edward Weiler, Abrams. Hardback ISBN 9780810989979, £19.95 ($29.95).
The publisher and NASA have joined forces to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope with the release of this inspirational “coffee-table” book. It not only pieces together the story of the telescope itself and the remarkable fruits of its labour, but also gives much prominence to the unparalleled teamwork by the men and women in conceiving, building, launching and operating Hubble – not to mention including detailed information and photographs from various NASA servicing missions.
Being the most celebrated celestial observer since Galileo assembled his first optical instruments, Hubble has without a doubt revolutionized astronomy and produced many of the most significant space photographs of our time.
In this “journey”, notable scientists describe the meaning and significance of the top-20 Hubble images and mission astronauts write about their experiences servicing it on various shuttle missions. The book includes a description of how the telescope works before presenting the wondrous world of our solar system, the stars and interstellar clouds. A later chapter explores the outer galaxies and Hubble’s quest to document them.
This book makes an ideal gift for readers young and old with an interest in science, space and astronomy. Younger readers will marvel at more than 100 classic photographs – many of them full page – and older ones will relish the accompanying text and captions.
